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There are two types of commandments in Scripture, those that are positive in nature and those that are negative in nature. The positive ones tell you what to do to please God. They say "thou shalt do this." And then there are the negative ones, the "thou shalt nots." The ones that tell you what sort of attitude or action to avoid. Some people think that the "ten commandments" are the only ones that are in the Bible. They haven't read much of it, if they think so! Even though God doesn't always word it as "thou shalt," there is plenty of other commandments, positive and negative, in the scripture for us to obey.

I'm preaching about a commandment from the New Testament so the first part of my title is Thou Shalt....

I have in my office a list of all 613 commandments of the law of Moses. There were only 248 positive commandments that were saying "do this." But there were 365 negative commandments, one for each day of the year.

I don't know what the ratio is in the New Testament but it's got to be somewhere around 50/50. The Grace of God is so much more positive than law and it is the promises that abound. Even the thought of Jesus' death -- which was a horrible thing, and certainly not a fun time for the disciples -- now brings joy and happiness in our lives! We live in the most blessed age in which to live for God: a time when we can experience His grace and His mercy and His Spirit flowing freely! For that reasons, born-again, Spirit-filled Christians ought to be the happiest most uplifting people to be around. After all God has done so much for us just saving our souls, not to mention the other blessings that we have from Him! Surely we ought to walk around with a smile on our face and a pleasant, uplifting disposition! Yet, we have to admit that when the Bible commands us NOT to do something, it is because doing that would hurt us and bring unneeded pain and stress: not to mention separating us from God.

This is a positive message, but the next part of my title is Thou Shalt Not...

It's the bridge between the negative and the positive. The key to moving on in the promises of God and being a person of faith is found in a negative command of God. True happiness and peace comes from mastering a "thou shalt not." I'm not preaching against adultery, homosexuality, murder, robbery, idolatry, or many of the other well-known commandments of scripture tonight. Most of you have those laws down. Instead I want to preach to you a commandment of Jesus that is just as important and just as much commanded in scripture, and one that all of us need to work on obeying, that is somewhat ignored by preachers and saints and very rarely preached on. The commandment is also my title tonight for my sermon: Thou shalt not ... WORRY!

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Thou shalt not worry? Some of you are thinking "that's not in the Bible." But it is. Even if we don't preach it like we should. Look back at our text in Luke at the words of Jesus:

The King James Version was translated almost 400 years ago and so there are some words that cause confusion because their meanings have changed over the years. One of the strengths of the New King James Version is that it tries to correct such things. This passage is one of those cases that needs some clarification. Most preachers don't teach from this passage because they don't understand what Jesus meant when He said "take no thought for your life." I've heard some people get up and preach from this passage that you shouldn't plan anything out or have any of what is known as common sense whatsoever, and that is a false interpretation of what this is saying. It's not a sin to have a plan for your life. It's not a sin to invest your money wisely. It's not a sin to go to the grocery store with a list and put a little thought into your everyday living. It's not a sin to think about what you are going to wear so that they match. It's not a sin to plan a menu for the week ahead and put a little thought into you food budget so you aren't always blowing your money on fast food. It would seem like that's what Jesus is saying, but it isn't; the confusion comes from the meaning of the word "thought."

The word in the Greek here is merimnao which does NOT mean "to think out." It means instead "to be anxious about." It means "to worry." Greek scholars Louw and Nida give the translation of Luke 12:25 as "can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?" When Jesus said "take no thought for your life" He was saying "stop worrying all the time." Or, if you like the official sounding stuff, "thou shalt not worry!"

Paul used the same word merimnao when he wrote in another misunderstood verse to the church in Philippi:

"Be careful for nothing." I've known people to take that and twist it into some crazy beliefs, but the word for "careful" in the original Greek is merimnao. Paul is saying "don't worry about anything," or, in other words, "thou shalt not worry." D.L. Moody summed up this verse by saying "Worry about nothing; pray about everything; be thankful for anything." That's pretty good advice to live by. And if you do, the next verse promises:

Jesus said that a sign of the endtimes would be that "men's heart would fail them for fear" (Luke 21:26). With that in mind listen to what Arthur Somers Roche said:

I agree, and it's a battle that every one of us face everyday. Every day worry tries to worm it's way into our brain and get us preoccupied on something that we can't do anything about. It's a trick from Satan because if we are focused on our worry and fear, then we are not focused on God and certainly not having faith for His promises!

Most people that talk about spiritual warfare don't recognize it when they are involved in it. Spiritual warfare is NOT seeing demons and having things push down hard on your chest and off of that "super spiritual" stuff. Spiritual warfare is fought between your two ears everyday. Let me remind you of exactly what the scripture says that talks about spiritual warfare. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth:

In Verse 5, Paul tells us exactly what spiritual warfare is. "Casting down imaginations" and "bringing into captivity every thought." Spiritual warfare is in your mind. It's not allowing ourselves to think the worst and to think the negative. Every day you are under attack by Satan to get your mind off of your true purpose in life, off of who you are in Jesus Christ, off of the promises that He has promised to you. And so worry is a principal weapon of Satan against Christians. And he has done a masterful job of disguising it as "natural and normal" all the while effectively handicapping Christians from the happy life that is promised them in Jesus Christ. But I'm here to tear off the mask of Satan's spiritual warfare tactics tonight: thou shalt not worry! If Jesus commanded you to not do it, then you have a choice to worry or not to worry! And if it is a "thou shalt not," then it hurts you and your relationship with God!

Understand that when the man of Gadara who had a "legion of demons" within him, wanted to worship Jesus, all those devils could do nothing to stop him! Hear me now: the devil cannot stop you physically. If you want to extend your hand to help someone, then Satan can't stop you. If you want to teach someone a Bible Study or open your mouth and witness, Satan can't bring some force to shove your jaws shut. If you are physically doing something in submission to Jesus Christ, the devil is powerless to come against it.

Since he cannot win the physical game, the devil tries to win in the mind. If he can get you to worry and fret and be fearful, then he can get you to never act physically. What he can't do through physical power, he can do by bringing worry into your mind. If you are fearful enough, then you won't open your mouth and witness and you won't reach out and help someone and you won't get out of the boat and walk on water by taking a step of faith. And if you won't do it, it's the same result as if he had physically stopped you! Somebody needs to get a revelation that you are a soldier and the battleground is your mind, and make up in your mind, that my life and my mind will not be a place of victory for the devil! I'm going to live according to Philippians 4:6: I'll "Worry about nothing; pray about everything; be thankful for anything!"

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Thou shalt not worry! "So what are you saying preacher? Not to care about anything?" No, I'm saying think about problems, and do your best to work them out according to scriptural principles. Work your job. Live your life. And you'll have good days and bad days. But if ever you allow a situation to dominate your mind so that it affects your spiritual activity and sensitivity. If your thoughts about a problem or situation reach the place where it hampers your prayer, your faithfulness, your praise, and your happiness, then you have crossed the threshold of violating the commandment of Jesus. Thou art worrying! When your thoughts about clothing and food and shelter and money and physical health cause you to question the faithfulness of God and the Word of God and cause you to slack off spiritually and not be joyful, then you are worrying!

In the 1920s, there was a meeting of American tycoons that met at Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel. The newspapers around the country made a big deal out of it because those six men who met represented more money than was in the national treasury. Their influence and "success" stories were beyond compare.

Twenty-five years later a columnist named Billy Rose remembered the event and hoopla and decided to find out what had happened through the years to those "very successful men." One, a man who had profited millions a year through the wheat market had died living in a foreign country where he had been hiding from his debts. Another, who had been the president of the nation's largest independent steel company, had died broke. Another, the president of the New York Stock Exchange at the time, had recently been released from prison. A member of the Cabinet in President Harding's administration, after being released from prison for health reasons, had died at home. The richest man of the bunch, a man who had earned a reputation as being the smartest trader on Wall Street, had committed suicide. The leader of the world's match monopoly had also committed suicide because of financial stress. The columnist summed up his report by saying "All of these men had learned how to make big money, but not one of them had learned how to live!"

True living is trusting in Jesus Christ! If you would have asked those men who seemed to have everything in 1920 if they had any worries for the future, then they would have laughed at you and asked "do you know how rich I am?" But, because they didn't have Jesus Christ as the center of their life, it turned out that they really should have been worrying! But if someone has nothing possession wise and yet trusts Jesus Christ and has a personal relationship with Him and has been forgiven, and has been set free from the bondage of sin and from heading to a devil's hell, then they have everything that matters and no reason to worry! To worry would be considered doubt in the ability of God to handle your future! And worry is really putting your trust in something other than God! You trust that the bad will happen rather than the good. Worry is misplaced trust. It's doubt, therefore, it's faith in the devil.

Perhaps that sounds tough and sounds unrealistic, but actually it's a very scriptural principle even if it's not popular. Jesus went on to say in our text:

Jesus tells us why it is so important to get the victory over worry in verse 29. It's because worry leads to a diminishing of our faith, and that in turn leads to a doubtful mind. Worry is the first step to doubting. I don't think we fully realize just how important faith is in our walk with God. Hebrews 11:6 has been quoted until we don't realize the full impact of what it is saying "without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please him." Without faith, you cannot please God in any way. But we don't fully understand what that is saying because of it's familiarity, so let's turn it around. Let's talk about how horrible it is to doubt God. You may remember what James said:

When doubt enters in the picture, it causes us to not be able to receive "anything of the Lord!" And it causes every area of our life, from our job, to our home, to our self-esteem, to our spiritual blessings to be unstable! James said such a person will be "unstable in all his ways!"

Let me try to present to you how horrible a tragedy doubt is and just how serious it is to God in respect to everything else. Think with me back to the children of Israel under the command of Moses. Did you ever stop and list all of the horrible sins that Israel committed AFTER they were delivered from Egypt?

God forgave them for lusting after the things of Egypt in the wilderness. He forgave them and gave them a second chance when they murmured and complained against Moses and Aaron, their leaders. And if you thought those things were bad, then came the biggie: While Moses was up on Mount Sinai, the children of Israel decided to go back to idolatry. Despite all the miracles and power that they had seen, all of them backslid in a period of less than 40 days! A few weeks without a direct word from God and they were ready to throw in the towel. Not only that, they had Aaron grind up their gold earrings and make a golden calf to worship and when Moses comes down from the mountain after having seen God face to face and with His holy law, the children of Israel are naked, dancing around the calf and fornicating as "worship!" Moses was mad, and certainly God had to be, but despite all of that, when they repented, the ones who survived, God forgave all of that and was willing to meet with Moses again and to give him the law again and to continue to lead the children of Israel through the wilderness.

God forgave to what you and I would be horrible sin. Surely there is no one here that goes to wild drunken parties where you worship a golden calf and dance naked! And yet when their heart was right, and they repented, God forgave them and said I'll push that sin ahead and not count it against you, let's go to the Promised Land!

But fast forward a few weeks. They finally reach the edge of the Promised Land and they send the twelve spies to get a look at what God has promised them. They find out that the land is as good as God has promised. There are awesome vineyards and houses there. It's good pastureland and literally a land "flowing with milk and honey" ie.. it's the land of plenty! But some of the spies notice something else: there are people that already live there -- big people -- really big people. And their insecurities begin to cause them to worry about what might happen. Their imagination kicks in and instead of casting it down, they start to dwell about what might happen if they have to personally fight against those giants. The scriptures say that the ten spies reported:

Talk about imaginative worry warts! Somewhere on the journey back to camp, they had begun to worry about those giants until their minds dreamed up them being squished like grasshoppers by them. And their worry got their mind off the fact that God had easily delivered them from the greatest army of the world at that time -- the Egyptian army -- without one of them having to swing a sword. Their worry got them off of the fact that God had promised them the land and that He would not forsake them. Their worry caused them to forget just a few days ago when Moses had read the new rules of the land, so obviously God was going to make a way for them to have it because He had already told them how to live once they got it. Their worry caused them to forget their awe at seeing God shake Mount Sinai and feeling the presence of God descend to meet with Moses. And worse than that, their worry began to become doubt and that doubt began to spread throughout the camp until the entire nation of Israel was in an uproar against Moses, Joshua, and Caleb. Moses is standing speechless with wonder at the disbelief. Joshua and Caleb are standing saying "what are you talking about giants? God is going to give us this land, let's take it!" And yet their doubt was such that God got mad and said "not one of you who doubted will ever see the Promised Land!" And God let them wander around in the Promised Land for 40 years until every one of them that had doubted had died and of that generation, only the two who had not worried, Joshua and Caleb, got to enter into the Promised Place of God!

"What are you saying preacher?" I'm saying that God takes great offense when He spreads out the table and makes His fabulous promises available and people reject it because of doubt! He forgave the golden calf and all the awful sins committed there, but He would not allow those with doubt to enter into the Promised Land! And according to Jesus in our text, worry is the first step toward doubt. Therefore this message is more than just a "feel good" message, but is of paramount importance. You'd better learn to not worry and to trust in God and to have faith, because few things offend Jesus Christ like doubt! To God, doubt is very serious, so much so that He commanded us to not even take the first steps toward it. Hear the commandment of Jesus Christ -- it's very important -- thou shalt not worry!

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People often quote our other text from Philippians. At least the last part about "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." But you will never be able to truthfully say that, until you have the attitude that Paul had in the preceding verses. Paul was not saying that statement after he had just prayed 200 people through the Holy Ghost. He was not saying it while he was feeling good. He was in jail. He had wounds on his back from being beaten. He is writing churches from prison because he has nothing else to do. And it is in that setting that Paul says "I can do all thing through Christ who strengtheneth me!" And it was in that setting that Paul wrote the other scriptures that we've been quoting about "the peace of God which passeth understanding." And it's from this same jail cell that Paul wrote the church:

Right before he had said "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me, Paul said "I have learned to be content in all things." In other words, I've learned "thou shalt not worry!"

The secret of Paul is that he understood the same thing that a man named Charlie Plumb had to learn. You ever hear of Charlie Plumb? He was a veteran of the Vietnam War and he wrote a book about his life a few years ago entitled "I'm No Hero." Let me head this sermon toward an end by telling you a little of his story.

At 24 years of age, Charlie Plumb was flying high as a top gun pilot during the Vietnam War. He had flow 74 successful missions and was five days from the completion of final tour and something happened that would change his life forever.

Roaring off the deck of the USS Kitty Hawk in the cockpit of F-4 Phantom fighter jet, Plumb remembered thinking, "I'm the best of the best, I'm probably bulletproof." Soaring into the bright blue sky, he fully anticipated the successful completion of his 75th mission.

Enemy fire ended those thoughts. His plane was hit, and Plumb and his copilot just barely managed to eject from the cockpit. Their parachutes opened and ninety seconds later they fell into the outstretched hands of the North Vietnamese Army.

In a minute and a half, Plumb had gone from being Top Gun to POW. He would spend the next six years in Hanoi along with two hundred other prisoners of war. In the first couple of days in Hanoi, he was tortured, interrogated, and humiliated. Tossed into an eight by eight cell, he paced and wept. Three steps. Pivot. Three steps. Pivot.

Days passed. More torture. Weeks passed. More torture. Down to 115 pounds due to malnutrition. Three steps. Pivot. Tear. Three steps. Pivot.

One day in the midst of this painful monotony, he heard a chirping noise. Thinking it to be a cricket, he located the sound and found that it was a piece of wire protruding through a tiny opening near the floor of his cell wall. As he watched, the wire moved, scratching the floor making the sound of a cricket. On the other end of the wire, he realized must be a fellow prisoner.

He tugged the wire three times. Someone on the other end answered with three tugs. He tugged again, but the wire was pulled from his grasp and disappeared through the hole. For an hour Plumb waited, then, the wire returned with a note attached to the end.

It read "How you doing, buddy?" "You want to know your biggest problem?"

Charlie Plumb was shocked. Here he was 115 pounds, and no clothes except a piece of cloth wrapped around his waist. Bleeding, starving to death, humiliated; and his fellow prisoner had the gall to ask if he knew what his problem was.

"Listening to you over there," the note continued, "it sounded like you're suffering from a fairly common disease that can kill you if you don't catch it in time."

Charlie scribbled back an inquiry. "What's the name of this disease? Maybe I know something about it?"

The response came back. "Around here, we call the disease 'prison thinking.' It's where you think you're a prisoner." Charlie thought, "What kind of idiot have they put me next to? Of course, I'm a prisoner!" But Charlie realized he would rather be talking to anyone, even an idiot than no one at all. So, he responded. "Tell me about 'prison thinking'."

"Well," the answer came back via the wire, "when a guy gets shot down, the normal red-blooded American thing for him to do is to start feeling sorry for himself and blaming everyone else. You go into this 'woe is me' mode of life. 'Poor mama Plumb's little boy Charlie is a long way from home in a communist prison camp.' You get a bushel of pity then just wallow in it. Then, you start blaming everybody that you can think of. The problem with this, of course, is that when you start blaming other people for your misfortune, you suddenly give them control over your life. That's prison thinking."

Something happened in Charlie that caused him to pick his chin up and said "I may be here right now, but I'm not a prisoner!" He stopped worrying about his situation and began to think outside of it! Charlie just learned in a very unorthodox way the power of "thou shalt not worry!" Paul understood it in his cell and you and I need to grasp the concept! When I worry, I'm yielding control of my life to something other than God! And being in a physical cell is not as bad as being in a mental one! Worry is prison thinking and he that the Son hath set free is free indeed!

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I close with this:

Did you ever think about how Joshua and Caleb felt having to wander in the hot, miserable wilderness for 40 years with the unbelievers waiting for them to all die off? I can't think of anything more miserable. Yet, their faith and worry-free attitude and trust in God enabled them to come through those years fine and still strong. We know what happened to Joshua, but did you ever read the story of the last years of Caleb's life? He wasn't bitter either. Let me read you what he told Joshua when they finally went into the Promised Land:

Caleb had learned the blessing of obeying the commandment: "Thou shalt not worry!" Do what you can do, and trust God to handle the rest. And in whatsoever state you find yourself be content! You'll have a happier life and be a much better person to be around. And what's more, your obedience to Jesus' commandment will draw people from this world to you like a magnet for God! People of our generation need a Caleb and a Paul. They need to see living proof of someone who knows, trusts, and obeys the commandment "thou shalt not worry!"